Dynamic state representation method for complex systems

A system for dynamically representing the state of any device comprising a plurality of sub systems, comprising:

• modeling means for defining a hierarchical data structure comprised of a plurality of leaves, each of said leaves representing a node associated with at least one of a system and a sub system of said device, at least one of said leaves being defined as a parent symbol in said hierarchical data structure, said parent symbol representing a parent node which is higher in said hierarchy than at least one other of said nodes, and at least one of said leaves being defined as child symbol representing a child node which is lower in said hierarchy than said parent node, each said child symbol defined in said modeling means by a data type which automatically propagates an updated state condition for said at least one child node to a corresponding one of said parent symbols;
• and
• means for automatically updating said parent symbol to reflect said updated state.

A machine readable storage, having stored thereon a computer program having a plurality of code sections executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform the steps of:

• defining a hierarchical data structure comprised of a plurality of leaves, each said leaf representing a discrete symbol associated with a sub-system of any device, and a parent symbol representing a level of abstraction of said device which is higher in said hierarchy than said plurality of leaves, each said leaf defined in a modeling means by a data type which automatically propagates a state condition for said leaf to a corresponding one of said parent symbols;
• in response to updated data received for any said leaf symbol, automatically determining an updated state of said leaf symbol based upon said updated data and automatically propagating said updated state to said parent symbol.